10 Months
by iluvbaseball
Summary: It's the gang's Senior year of High School.  You'll have to read to see what happens.  R&R!
1. The night before

He sat on the counter top, legs crossed in the darkness of the kitchen. The book he was to read for the summer had been finished minutes ago. _Great Expectations_ took up one hour every day that August. It boggled his brain with its' strong detail and he bet he couldn't give you a decent summery of the book. His iPod blared 'I'd Do Anything' by Simple Plan, which only he was aware of, thanks to earphones. A smile came to his lips as he looked at the pink iPod Shuffle next to him. For Christmas two years ago, his best friend John 'Mush' Meyers gave him it as a present. And he took it everywhere. The only down side was he got made fun of a bit because of the fact it was PINK. Louis, otherwise known as Kid Blink, couldn't care less though. It was those people's fault for being rude.

Just then he got a text from his friend Racetrack whom he'd hadn't seen in two weeks: _Back from South Dakota__!_ :) He smiled at the pointless message and put the phone in his pocket.

In the corner he was staring at, was his bag ready for the first day of his senior year of High School. Above it the keys to his pick-up truck hung, next to his mother's car keys. His little brother's house keys were missing as usual. But there was a hook that was meant to be in the condition it was; empty. Mr. Porter had left them three weeks into summer vacation. Just the thought made him sigh in sadness. The song changed to 'Lips of an Angel' by Hinder. It was then Sabrina Porter came into the kitchen. She had her old robe wrapped around her because of the apartment's cold temperature. She blew on her hand to make an attempt to get warmer.

She was startled to see her son perched next to the sink. Her hand flew to her heart dramatically and Kid just watched, the thought of a heart attack not coming to mind. By the age of ten, he realized which side of the family he leaned closer to.

"Holy cow buddy," she greeted slowly, "Hey it's late you should be in bed. You okay?" Sabrina was a kind-hearted, over protective mother. She opened the cupboard to get a glass. Kid turned on the sink so she could get water. He paused the song as the second chorus began.

"I'm alright ma," He replies, "I'm just thinking." He was a very plain boy when he was alone. But if his friends were with him, he was grinning ear to ear and laughing at whatever joke was being thrown around that day. Though that summer he rarely saw any of his friends besides Mush and Jack Kelly. His parents divorce really affected him. It was a shame he didn't know it.

"Well, get your b-u-t-t in bed mister. And don't forget to take off your eye patch tonight." She ran her free hand through his dirty blond hair that matched hers. She kissed his fore head then patted his shoulder. He smiled at her weakly, hopped off the counter, and headed down the hall to his room. He walked right in the room with it's yellow milk colored wall and plopped on his bed that was no more than just a mattress at that point. The actual support for the bed had broke last week by his brother Jimmy. He landed on his Yankees baseball cap his dad gave him when he was 12.

High School was nearly over. _One more year_, he told himself. This year would be easy; well that's at least what his mom told him. Graduation, Prom, and goodbyes would come his way. Like in those sentimental LifeTime movies, everything would go by so fast. He had chosen to go to the Academy of Art in California for college. He didn't want to stay too close to home and California was far enough from Buffalo, New York right? Jack said he'll help Blink get a girl to take to prom since he'd never had a girlfriend. Except in the fourth grade. It lasted till lunch of the next day. Blink grinned at the thought. He got another text from Race. Something about a monkey.

He remembered to pick up Mush, forgetting to take his eye patch off before drifting to sleep.


	2. Getting Ready A Memory

_Kid woke up later than normal that day. And after hearing what happened, he was glad he did. He found his mom on the fire escape outside her window. It was obvious she was crying. Her shoulders were shaking violently and her sobs had immense power in them. Blink didn't know what to do. He couldn't control his own emotions, so how was he to calm his crying mother?_

"Louis! Rise and shine, you don't wanna miss the first of school." His mom said. She had been saying that since the first grade. It was sort of an unofficial tradition. Not to upset her, he got out of bed. That was the only reason he got up when asked the first time. Well, there's that, the last day of school, or if there was anything exciting going on that day.

_She sniffled and wiped her tears away looking at something in her hand. Blink didn't want to get too close to see what it was. That's when she threw it. Yeah. She just chucked it into the distance. "Lou," She said it so quiet he barely realized she'd spoken, "I know you're there." That was his cue to climb out to the fire escape. Sabrina wiped her eyes again, before hugging her son. _

"_What's wrong?" The tone in his voice was clearly in worry. _

"Jimmy! Get up! You don't want to miss 7TH grade!" He heard mom call into the room across the hall. "Yes he does!" Blink said as he got out of bed. The gross taste of early morning filled his mouth and he closed it tight. Then he regretted sleeping with his eye patch on. His left eye had gotten red and puffy. Stupid fabric. In the mirror he examined his two eyes. The right one a deep blue color and was on the normal side of his face. His left eye however, a much lighter blue that was nearly white. Being blind in only one eye had its disadvantages, totally. Though, he thought his crippled friend Crutchy, had it worse.

"_Your dad…You know my friend Jaime?" The two by now had gotten inside and were going to the kitchen table. Blink noticed the last key hook was vacant. And his father's coat was not placed on the coat hanger like always. _

"_What about Jaime? Ma, what's going on?" Mrs. Porter couldn't bring herself to look right at Kid. This frightened him a bit. Okay, a lot. "Well…I know this is a bad time, you turning 18 and what not next week…" He knew where this was going and, he wished it wasn't happening. _

BEEP! He got another text from Race. This one read: Callie painted my nails yellow when I was sleeping! Not cool:( ! Blink laughed at Race's sister's prank. He had to reply: Yellow is your color dude! After getting dressed he got another message: Shut up! Pink is yours!

He didn't get to reply when Mush texted him: Sup?

Blink: Nail polish

Mush: Do I want to know?

Blink: It's better if you don't

Mush: :)

_Sabrina took a sip of coffee that had been sitting on the table for who knows how long. "Louis…your dad is leaving…please don't blame it on yourself or Jimmy. Stewart," she used his first name; this was serious, "just doesn't love me anymore. He still cares about you two, don't think he doesn't. There was a big fight between us this morning as well..." Blink was processing this entirely but, it wasn't easy. With each sentence, each word, his heart sank deeper and deeper and his throat became dry and it was hard to breathe._

"Don't forget to eat breakfast this morning. You remember what happened last year?" Sabrina said as she put her earrings in. Of course he did. The first day of Junoir year, he didn't eat before going to school. He was starving by the time lunch came. That wasn't the only first day incident that happened. Freshman year, he rode his bike to school, and when he got to the bike rack at the end of the day, it was missing. Sophmore, well...let's just say that's whenhe got on the jock's bad side.

"_So what's Jaime got to do with this?" He asked fighting back tears, to stay strong for his mother. The woman sighed heavily, then spoke, "She's part of the reason he doesn't love me anymore. Why my best friend? Of all people, why her?" her voice began to rise near that last part. You could tell both were ready to break down and cry. "Does Jimmy know?" Blink squeaked out. She shook her head. He got up from his seat to give his mom a hug; they needed one. That's when he noticed her ring was missing. _

"Bye Ma!" Kid yelled behind his shoulder as he left the apartment. He put on his baseball cap and it some how readied himself for the day, even though, he'd have to take it off as soon as he got in the building.

Coming down the hallway, full speed on roller skates was the girl who just moved with her family a floor above. "Watch out!" She cried. And he pressed himself against the wall, watching her fly by, "Sorry!" She shouted as she made it to the elevator. The girl turned around to wave good bye as the doors closed. She was definatley the friendly type. Her red eyeshadow was a strange make-up choice but, everyone has their quirks. Blink adjusted his eye patch and made his way toward the stair case.

He stopped by Mush's house and to school the boys went.

**How was this chapter?**


	3. Before Class

"How's it goin' Crutchy?" Jack greeted his friend in the hallway. The shorter boy looked up from the book he was reading for the billionth time, and smiled. It was a rarity to find Crutchy without _The Outsiders _by S.E. Hinton in his hands_. _He'd gotten a few of his friends to read it_. _When questioned why he liked the book so much he usually answered with 'It speaks to me'. He discovered it in the sixth grade, when everyone else was reading _Harry Potter _or _Twilight_. And since he didn't want to pretend to be a wizard or get into Vampires, so _The Outsiders_ was what he chose. His favorite character was Johnny Cade and some people think strange of Crutchy when he refers to the character's nickname, Johnnycake. He was on chapter 5.

"Goin' good Jack," He beamed, "how are you?" The boy was cheerful and ever-so optimistic. His crutch was something not many people would be happy with. Jack replied with good and they just sort of stood there by the lockers. Their other friends would be showing up soon. This group of boys was made from a bunch of goofballs, tough guys, and a few that lay in between the two.

Jack was, in a way, the unoffical leader of the boys. The others just followed along to what he said. Except for Spot who normally disagreed with Jack, among most people.

Walking from the main entrance was David Jacobs and Racetrack Higgins, in a light conversation that evaporated when they found Jack and Crutchy. It was one of those talks that, you can never remember how it got started.

"Hey-ya Cowboy," Race said grinning, calling Jack by his childhood nickname. The poor boy thought he'd never shake off that name, "Hey Race, David." He looked at the blue eyed boy as he spoke. Most likely distracted by his unruly, curly, brown hair. He was weird like that. At least that's how his friend's explained it. Soon, Spot Conlon joined the growing bunch. He was pissed that morning cause he had to walk to school; the bus missed his stop and it was too late to call a friend to pick him up. Everyone was talking, exchanging schedules, and watching the Freshmen walk by. They were like that once. The memory was in the past but, close enough to remember it. Just coming from middle school and what not doesn't give anyone a strong reputation. That is unless you had a cool older sibling who'd been in high school or, something along those lines. David's older sister was in high school when he entered but, she wasn't exactly cool. She just acted that way. By then Blink and Mush had arrived.

Blink saw Race's nails weren't painted anymore. He figured Race got Callie to cough up the nail polish remover. He called him out on that and all Race said in return was, 'Pink'.

The bright red eyeshadow had caught their attention first. It was the roller skate girl from Blink's apartment. She came down the hallway with Rachel Chronis looking for their lockers. Her skates were off and slung around her shoulders. Rachel was a friend of the boys since the 8TH grade. She had this thing with drawing in her sketch-book. She normally drew ravens so, that's how she became known as Raven. She was the only girl officially in the gang.

The two came to a halt in front of the boys.

"Can we help you?" Spot asked a tad more impolite than necessary. Raven was one of those people Spot didn't see eye to eye with. They always come up with a reason to argue. Once they even had a cliché fight; fighting about fighting. Raven informed the boys they were standing in the way of the girls' lockers. The whole time glaring yet, grinning at Spot. She treated the rest of them what seemed to be normal to the new girl. They moved away and the girls carried on their conversation.

"So what do you have first?" Raven said, adjusting her grey glasses. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a pony-tail and sketch-pad was placed under her arm.

"English, with some teacher named Denton." She replied, getting her locker open on the fifth try. Her appearance was frightening Crutchy a lttle bit; she was sort of rough, army-brat looking.

"I know where that is. I'll show you; I'm headed that way already." Mush then piped up he was in that class as well. That's when the new friends noticed the boys were basically observing them. The still nameless girl nodded and took off her jean jacket to put it in her locker with her skates. A majority of the guys noticed her shirt; it was a green and gold t-shirt that had the name 'REED' on the back, along with the number 44. She obviously liked the _Mighty Ducks _movies. But David notices something else about her. Coming from under the neck of her shirt was a drawing that appeared to look like a multi-colored humming bird. He was baffled. The new girl had a tattoo? He already made the assumption she was weird but, that was a little you know...out there.

"Bye…boys…" Tattoo chick girl said avoiding eye contact. She didn't really have a stunning personality with new boys around. Rachel, who knew all the boys, rolled her eyes and introduced the guys to her.

"Race, Mush, Blink, Spot, David, Jack and Crutchy, this is-"She was interrupted by her friend.

"Since we're going by nicknames here, I'm Duckling." And the girls walked through the crowd of teenagers. Soon after the boys dispersed, about to endure the first day of school. Either if they were ready or not.

**Good? Bad? Terrible? Review please! It'll boost my confidence!**


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